Federal (USV)

Lieutenant

John Mead Gould

Gould worked in his father's bank before the War, and enlisted in April 1861 as Private in the Portland Light Guards, which soon entered Federal service for 90 days as Company C, 1st Maine Infantry. He and the Regiment did their service in the defences of Washington DC, and returned to Maine when mustered out in August 1861. In September he re-enlisted in the new 10th Maine for two-year's service, and in October was made Sergeant Major. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant, Company E, on 7 April 1862 and acting Regimental Adjutant. He served in the Valley Campaign of early 1862, and saw his first significant combat at Cedar Mountain on 9 August. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and permanant Adjutant the same day.

On the Campaign

Adjutant of the 10th during the battle, he was one of the volunteers who carried mortally wounded General Mansfield to the rear on the morning of 17 September.

The rest of the War

The unit saw no further significant action, and in May 1863 he was discharged at the expiration of his enlistment. In September he re-entered service as Adjutant of the 29th Maine Veteran Infantry. He served at New Orleans and on the Red River Campaign of early 1864, and returned to the vicinity of Washington DC in July 1864. He saw action at Opequan, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek in September and October. In December he was promoted Major of the Regiment. After Appomattox he was on "occupation" duty in South Carolina until his resignation in March 1866.

After the War

After the War he was active in Veteran's groups, and published a history of the units in which he served (History of the First-Tenth-Twenty-ninth Maine Regiment, In Service of the United States From May 3, 1861 to June 21, 1866, Major John M. Gould, Portland (Me): Stephen Berry, 1871).

He also wrote articles for the National Tribune (1884, 1892) giving his eyewitness account of General Mansfield's wounding and death at Antietam, and had extensive correspondence with veterans from all over the country in response to controversies on that subject and about the Battle in general. He later provided hundreds of these letters to the Antietam Battlefield Board, contributing considerably to the Board's understanding and documentation of the Battle.1

References & notes

Except as noted above, this information comes from Gould.2 The photograph above is from the USAMHI Collection.3

More on the Web

See the most excellent John Mead Gould Biography page for photographs and much more about the life of Major Gould - also the online source citing the biographical material from Gould's Journals.